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Texas Woman Busted After 4-Year-Old Tries To Sell Marijuana Brick
SAN JUAN (September 29, 2010—Maria Ipina, 22, of San Juan, was in jail Wednesday after her neighbors reported that her four-year-old daughter was trying to sell a brick of marijuana.
Ipina was charged with possession of a controlled substance after her arrest on Monday.
A San Juan police dispatcher declined to release any information on Ipina.
However, Police Chief Juan Gonzalez told The Monitor of McAllen that neighbors reported her daughter was going door to door on Saturday, trying to sell marijuana.
Gonzalez said officers went to Ipina’s apartment and found more than 200 grams of cocaine packaged for sale, but no marijuana.
Gonzalez says the girl and her 6-month-old sibling were turned over to Ipina's mother.
7,500 Online Shoppers Unknowingly Sold Their Souls
FOXNews.com
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/15/online-shoppers-unknowingly-sold-souls/?test=latestnews
A computer game retailer revealed that it legally owns the souls of thousands of online shoppers, thanks to a clause in the terms and conditions agreed to by online shoppers.
A computer game retailer revealed that it legally owns the souls of thousands of online shoppers, thanks to a clause in the terms and conditions agreed to by online shoppers.
The retailer, British firm GameStation, added the "immortal soul clause" to the contract signed before making any online purchases earlier this month. It states that customers grant the company the right to claim their soul.
"By placing an order via this Web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant Us a non transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your immortal soul. Should We wish to exercise this option, you agree to surrender your immortal soul, and any claim you may have on it, within 5 (five) working days of receiving written notification from gamesation.co.uk or one of its duly authorised minions."
GameStation's form also points out that "we reserve the right to serve such notice in 6 (six) foot high letters of fire, however we can accept no liability for any loss or damage caused by such an act. If you a) do not believe you have an immortal soul, b) have already given it to another party, or c) do not wish to grant Us such a license, please click the link below to nullify this sub-clause and proceed with your transaction."
The terms of service were updated on April Fool's Day as a gag, but the retailer did so to make a very real point: No one reads the online terms and conditions of shopping, and companies are free to insert whatever language they want into the documents.
While all shoppers during the test were given a simple tick box option to opt out, very few did this, which would have also rewarded them with a £5 voucher, according to news:lite. Due to the number of people who ticked the box, GameStation claims believes as many as 88 percent of people do not read the terms and conditions of a Web site before they make a purchase.
The company noted that it would not be enforcing the ownership rights, and planned to e-mail customers nullifying any claim on their soul.
Real-Life 'Weekend at Bernie's' Could Land Fliers in Jail
Two British women who allegedly tried to smuggle a dead relative onto a flight out of England were arrested, Sky News reported Tuesday.
The suspects pushed the 91-year-old man in a wheelchair and covered his face with sunglasses during a bid to board him on their flight to Berlin, sources said.
The women, aged 41 and 66, were said to have protested that the deceased was merely asleep when probed by officials Saturday at Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
It is believed the pair somehow managed to ferry the corpse in a taxi from their home in Oldham, northwestern England, to the terminal.
But the alleged attempt to smuggle the body to Germany was foiled after airport staff started asking questions.
"Police at Liverpool John Lennon Airport were alerted to the death of a 91-year-old man in the terminal building," a police spokesman said.
"Two women aged 41 and 66 were arrested on suspicion of failing to give notification of death. They have been released on bail until June 1, 2010. The coroner has been informed and police are continuing with their inquiries."
6 People Miraculously Survive Vehicle's 700-Foot Plunge Over Cliff
NewsCore
All-terrain vehicle plummets over a Massachusetts cliff in total darkness, but all passengers live through fall into steep ravine.
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Five men and one woman miraculously survived a terrifying plunge when their all-terrain vehicle plummeted over a Massachusetts cliff in total darkness -- sending some of them tumbling as far as 700 feet down into a ravine, the New York Post reported Tuesday.
"I'm glad to be alive," said Kurt Wolfard, 29, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who was visiting friends and family when they decided to take a ride at about 1:30am local (Eastern) time Sunday.
"The trail was rough, of course, because we were going through the forest," he said. "Once we got to the crest of the hill, I don't think the driver realized how far we were over the cliff -- and we went off."
Rescuers said the five-wheel vehicle fell 50 to 75 feet down a sheer cliff face, then tumbled the rest of the way down a steep slope covered in jagged rocks.
The passengers toppled down the mountain with their belongings, trying to grasp at the cliff to break their fall.
"I felt my face and thought it was water or sweat," said Wolfard, who fell just 30 feet.
"It was blood -- gushing out of my head."
He made his way to a friend's house, where he was greeted by rescuers.
"When the police told me that it was a 720-foot drop with gravel slopes, jagged rocks and land so steep that trees don't grow, I couldn't believe I even survived," he said.
All members of the group were rescued within four hours, authorities said. Four were hospitalized, three in serious condition. Wolfard and another man were treated and released.
"I'm very happy to be here," said Wolfard, a married mechanic. "I have a three-year-old daughter to take care of.
China will soon have the power to switch off the lights in the West
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/6924710/China-will-soon-have-the-power-to-switch-off-the-lights-in-the-West.html
NSA to store yottabytes of surveillance data in Utah megarepository (update: not so much)
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/11/01/nsa-to-store-yottabytes-of-surveillance-data-in-utah-megarepository/
Health insurance mandate alarms some
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-na-mandate1-2009nov01,0,4895768.story
It Is Going To Be A Rocky Road -
If you are able to get out of debt, do it.
If you need to scale down your lifestyle in order
to be better prepared for difficult days, do it.
If you don't have guns and ammo, buy them.
If you have not prepared some sort of preserved food
pantry, do it.
If you don't have some kind of survival plan in place
for you and your family, get one.
If you are not physically fit, get in shape.
If you are able to move to a more secure,
out-of-harm's-way location, do it.
(During any kind of financial or societal meltdown,
urban areas will quickly turn into.......
http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin535.htm
by Pastor Chuck Baldwin
God Bless us -
Amen
Patriots: Time For Major Push on Userper's Citizenship Issue
On September 12, 2009, Americans descended on Washington, DC.,
in one of the largest displays of citizen disgust towards
government in the history of this republic.
While this patriotic day of fed up Americans was happening,
the usurper (Obama/Soetoro) made sure he was out of town.
As usual.
Obama aka Soetoro has taken a real fondness to flying around
on Air Force One with his inventory of teleprompters and
stable of fawning sycophants.........
http://www.newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd467.htm
by Devvy Kidd
God Bless
Attack on Baghdad as Biden visits -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8257676.stm
Stimulus Checks Mistakenly Sent to 1,700 Inmates, Federal Agency Says
The inspector general's office for the Social Security Administration is looking into the problem as part of its broader audit on stimulus spending. The Social Security Administration acknowledged the $425,000 glitch following a report that nearly two-dozen inmates in Massachusetts had wrongly received the $250 stimulus checks.
By Judson Berger
FOXNews.com
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
The federal government mistakenly sent out stimulus checks to 1,700 inmates, the Social Security Administration said Tuesday -- a $425,000 error.
Social Security spokesman Dan Moraski told FOXNews.com in a written statement that the money went out because official records "did not accurately reflect that they were in prison."
The inspector general's office for the Social Security Administration is now looking into the problem as part of its broader audit on stimulus spending. The Social Security Administration acknowledged the glitch following a report that nearly two-dozen inmates in Massachusetts had wrongly received the $250 stimulus checks.
Even before the agency disclosed that the problem was more widespread, the discovery prompted complaints from Republicans critical of the $787 billion stimulus and the way it has been managed.
"It is unacceptable for convicts to be getting stimulus funds. It speaks to the lack of oversight and accountability to have such nonsense coming out of Washington. Where is the accountability?" House Minority Whip Eric Cantor said in a written statement.
Though it might strike taxpayers as unusual, some inmates were legally eligible for the stimulus checks.
Under the law, the $250 checks were supposed to be sent to those legally receiving benefits under the Social Security Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs or the Railroad Retirement Board between November 2008 and January 2009.
So while inmates generally aren't eligible for Social Security benefits, those who were not incarcerated between November and January got the stimulus checks fair and square.
Moraski said a total of 3,900 inmates not receiving benefits were sent a stimulus check and that of those, 2,200 were due the payment because they were out of prison late last year. The other 1,700 were mistakenly sent the checks.
But Moraski said that the number was "relatively small" given the fact that 52 million total payments were made, and that most of the mistaken payments have been returned by the correctional institutions. He did not provide specifics for how much of the $425,000 had been returned.
The Boston Herald reported the administration is asking for the Massachusetts money back. But Diane Wiffin, a spokeswoman with the Massachusetts Department of Corrections, told FOXNews.com that her department tried to alert the Social Security staff months ago when it first discovered that the checks had been sent to 23 inmates.
"It was the DOC's opinion that the inmates were not eligible for the payments because of their incarceration, and we withheld the checks from the inmates at that time and immediately contacted the federal Social Security Administration," she said in an e-mail.
But she said that the administration "failed to provide a directive despite several requests," so the department could no longer withhold the checks from the inmates.
George Penn, a spokesman for the Social Security Administration's inspector general, said his office is examining the issue and likely will fold the inquiry into part of its audit of stimulus spending.
"(In) our initial analysis, we found that there were some (recipients) that were in prison," Penn said.
It's unclear whether beneficiaries thought to be eligible under the Department of Veterans Affairs received the stimulus money mistakenly due to incarceration.
Steven Bartholow, general counsel with the Railroad Retirement Board, said inmates receiving railroad benefits easily could have received stimulus checks -- but that it would have been totally legal, since in almost all circumstances inmates are eligible for railroad retirement benefits.
"If there are any people like that then they would have received a stimulus payment," he said.
But he added: "It's a very, very small number."
Southwest Flight Turns Around After Passenger Removes Clothes During Scuffle
Thursday, August 20, 2009
A Southwest Airlines flight was forced to turn around after a dispute erupted on board that left one passenger completely naked.
The Alameda County sheriff's department in California said a man and a woman on the flight were injured during the altercation, and one of them took off all of his or her clothes.
The flight originated in Oakland, Calif., and was en route to St. Louis.
During the scuffle, pilots changed course and headed back to Oakland. The man and woman were both taken to area hospitals after the plane landed.
Charges Dismissed Against Man Who Spent Two Decades in Prison
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
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NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A Connecticut judge has dismissed murder and rape charges against a man who spent two decades in prison before DNA testing showed he could not have committed the crimes.
Kenneth Ireland, of Wallingford, appeared in New Haven Superior Court on Wednesday. He had been released from prison Aug. 5 when Judge Richard Damiani granted him a new trial.
Ireland was 20 years old when he was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the 1986 rape and murder of Barbara Pelkey, a mother of four. Her nude body was found at the Wallingford manufacturing plant where she worked alone at night.
Prosecutors say they have reopened the investigation into her death.
Ireland was helped by the Connecticut Innocence Project, which helped to free two other men since 2006.
Booking Error Offers Luxury Venice Vacation for 1 Cent
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
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Hundreds of lucky vacationers jumped on an Italian hotel offer that seemed too good to be true, booking a romantic four-star weekend in Venice for 1 cent, Reuters reported.
A hotel booking system error offered up the rooms at a fraction of the Crowne Plaza Quarto D'Altino's normal rate of up to $214 a night. The offer was quickly withdrawn once staff realized the mistake.
But the damage had been done, with some 1,400 nights booked at the 1-cent rate in a matter of hours. The mistake will cost Intercontinental Hotels Group, the world's largest chain, an estimated $126,000.
Neither Intercontinental Hotels Group or the hotel was immediately available for comment.
California users file civil suit against Facebook
1 minute ago
(AP:SANTA ANA, California) Five Facebook users filed a civil lawsuit Monday alleging that the social networking site is violating California's privacy laws and misleading members about how their personal information is used.
The lawsuit, filed in Orange County Superior Court, asks for damages and attorney's fees and includes a request for a jury trial.
Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt declined to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit.
"We see no merit to this suit and we plan to fight it," he said in an e-mailed statement.
The complaint alleges that Facebook violates California privacy and online privacy laws by disseminating personal information posted by users to third parties. The lawsuit also alleges that Facebook engages in data mining and harvesting without fully disclosing those practices to its members.
It was filed on behalf of several individuals, including a professional photographer, two children under age 13, a user of the original Facebook and a Los Angeles-based actress and model.
Privacy concerns have been a thorny issue for Facebook, which has grown to more than 200 million users.
The Palo Alto, California-based company announced earlier this year it was tweaking its privacy controls and giving users a hand in determining various policies after tens of thousands of members protested over who controls the information they share on the site. The social networking site said in February it would allow users to review, comment and vote on changes to privacy, ownership and sharing before they are put into place.
And in late 2007, a tracking tool called "Beacon" caught Facebook caught users off-guard by broadcasting information about their activities at other Web sites, including their purchase of holiday gifts for those who could see the information. The company ultimately allowed users to turn Beacon off.
Calls and e-mails to the attorney representing the plaintiffs in the case were not returned Monday.
--
btw. after about 700 friends on my fb acc. they wiped me out
for no reason! its a waste of time to create an fb-acc. with
bolshevikz scumbagz? imo!
Reisman vs. Rhode Island
Most prostituted women -- so Rhode Island children -- come from brutalizing, sexually abusive homes. The “50 Professors” and the Rhode Island legislators should know that. The September Preventing Abuse Conference will educate them all on the vast problem of exploitation of women and children that grows daily in the USA. IN 1999 the US Department of Justice reported 58,200 children kidnapped by nonfamily members, and roughly 800,000 children are estimated to go missing each year........
http://www.newswithviews.com/Reisman/judith102.htm
by Judith R. Reisman
ORLANDO, Fla. — A 60-year-old man has been convicted of groping a woman in a Minnie Mouse costume at Walt Disney World.
John William Moyer, of Cressona, Pa., maintains his innocence in the June incident.
He was convicted Tuesday of misdemeanor battery and sentenced to write the victim an apology, serve 180 days probation and complete 50 hours of community service. Moyer must also pay $1,000 in court costs and possibly undergo a mental evaluation.
The victim, Brittney Duncan McGoldrick, says she was doing everything possible to keep Moyer's hands off her breasts.
California Won't Accept Its Own IOUs
http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/08/04/California_Won_t_Accept_Its_Own_IOUs.htm
New York City Buys Homeless People One-Way Plane Tickets to Keep Shelter Costs Down
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
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Reuters
A homeless man sits in front of a New York City subway entry.
NEW YORK — New York City is buying one-way plane tickets for homeless families to leave the city.
It's part of a program by Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration to keep the homeless out of the expensive shelter system, which costs $36,000 a year per family.
More than 550 families have left the city since 2007. All it takes is for a relative to agree to take them in.
The city employs a travel agency for domestic travel and the Department of Homeless Services handles international travel.
City officials say there are no limits on where a family can be sent and families can reject the offer.
Families have been sent to 24 states and five continents, mostly to Puerto Rico, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.
City officials say none of the relocated families have returned to city shelters.
New Threat: Antibiotic-resistant Bacteria Causes Deadly Pneumonia
http://www.naturalnews.com/026650_MRSA_bacteria_disease.ht
http://www.oxysilver.com/169
Oregon Man's Wallet Found After 63 Years
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
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BAKER CITY, Ore. — Bill Fulton doesn't remember losing his wallet, but getting it back more than 60 years later helped him remember the past.
The leather stayed smooth and the zipper moved as easily as it did in 1946, when he apparently dropped the wallet behind the balcony bleachers in the Baker Middle School gym while cheering for the Baker High basketball team.
Fulton's Social Security card and a bicycle license for his job as a drugstore delivery boy were positioned in their respective compartments, apparently untouched since the year after World War II ended.
"After that long, my gosh, it stayed in good shape," Fulton, 78, told the Baker City Herald. "It's hard to believe."
A worker found the wallet — along with old homework, lost library books and a 1964 talent show program — while removing the bleachers for renovations on June 17. It was brought to Fulton's door the following day by Melanie Trindle, the Baker Middle School secretary.
"He was pretty much amazed," Trindle said. "He just kept saying, 'Thank you. Thank you so much.' "
The brown pine bleachers had been in place since the school opened in 1936.
Fulton said the recovery has led him to reflect on a life that took him to the Korean War and Berlin before a return to Baker City. He worked at Ellingson Lumber Company for 30 years until 1994.
"Where did all the time go?" Fulton said with a deep sigh. "It's hard to believe that the times have gone so fast."
Ohio Residents Ticketed for Parking in Own Driveways
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
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TOLEDO, Ohio — Residents of Toledo, Ohio, are complaining that they received $25 tickets for parking their vehicles in their own driveways.
Mayor Carty Finkbeiner says he stands by the citations handed out last week by the Division of Streets, Bridges and Harbor. He says the tickets were issued under a city law against parking on unpaved surfaces, including gravel driveways.
During a news conference Monday, Finkbeiner ignored a reporter's question of whether the crackdown and fines were related to the city's budget crisis.
The three-term mayor faces a recall vote in November. Critics have claimed he has wasted city money.
City Councilman D. Michael Collins calls the ticketing "Mickey Mouse nonsense." He has told residents he'll try to have the citations rescinded.
Nebraska Mom Attempts to Sell Her 18-Month-Old on Craigslist
Monday, June 15, 2009
OMAHA, Neb. — Nebraska officials have taken custody of an 18-month-old after the child's mother tried sell the boy online at Craigslist.
Sarpy County Attorney Lee Polikov says charges have not yet been filed against the mother.
But state officials took the child into foster care late Friday to make sure the boy's safe.
The text of the ad said the woman is a methamphetamine addict and the boy deserves a mom who is not an addict.
The woman said in the ad her son needs help before she does something crazy.
Tel Aviv search for mattress containing $1M life savings
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- It was supposed to be a pleasant surprise, but turned into the shock of a lifetime.
A woman scours a garbage heap in Tel Aviv for her mother's missing mattress.
A woman scours a garbage heap in Tel Aviv for her mother's missing mattress.
A woman in Tel Aviv, Israel, gave her elderly mother a new mattress as a surprise gift, throwing out the old tattered bed her mother had slept on for decades. The gesture ended up bankrupting Annat's mother, who had stuffed her savings of nearly $1 million inside her old bed for decades, Annat told Israel Army Radio.
A massive search is under way at the city dump, where security has been beefed up to keep out treasure-seekers who have heard Annat's story in Israeli media.
Annat, who did not want to reveal the rest of her name, told Israel Army Radio that she woke up early Sunday to get a good deal on a new mattress as a surprise for her mother.
Sound off: Which bizarre places have you hidden money?
She fell asleep that night, exhausted after lugging up the new mattress and hauling down the old one to be taken out with the trash.
When her mother realized the next day what her daughter had done, she told her that she had been using the mattress to stash away her life savings and had nearly $1 million padding the inside of the worn-out mattress.
Annat ran downstairs, but it was too late. The garbage truck had already taken away the money-stuffed mattress.
Annat alerted the two major dump sites in the Israeli city in an effort to locate the bed, but so far she has had no luck. Yitchak Burba, one of the dump site managers, told Army Radio that he and his men are working relentlessly to try to help Annat find the million-dollar mattress among the tons of garbage at the landfill.
The publicity has triggered a wave of people also trying to find the mattress and its contents for themselves. Burba has increased security around the dump to keep them out.
Annat told Army Radio that when her mother realized her queen-sized bank had been tossed, she told her to "'leave it.'"
"'The heart is crying but you know we could have been in a car accident or had a terminal disease,'" Annat said her mother told her.
Annat is also taking the situation in stride.
"It's a very, very sad story but I've been through worse," she told Army Radio. "It's a matter of proportions in life ... people need to know how to accept the good and the bad in life."
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This is directly from a leading newspaper in NZ
Westpac is using charging orders and property law notices to salvage what it can from the personal assets of a Rotorua man who has fled the country after receiving a multimillion dollar bank credit.
Rotorua service station owner Leo Gao and his partner, Kara Young, are believed to be in Hong Kong after Mr Gao's Westpac account allowed him to access millions of dollars.
Westpac confirmed yesterday that a $100,000 overdraft had been applied for but the account was wrongly given a $10m limit on May 5 as the result of a data entry error. The mistake was not picked up until late last week.
The account holder believed to be Mr Gao then tried to withdraw $6.7m from the account and move the money offshore. The bank has recovered $2.9m and has hired a private investigator as it tries to track down the rest.
Westpac said yesterday $3.8m was missing.
A Westpac spokesman today said the bank was doing all it could to recover the funds, including receivership action in relation to Mr Gao's petrol station.
As well, the bank had instigated legal action to issue charging orders and property law notices over personal assets.
"The process is that if Property Law Act notices are unremedied then the bank can proceed to the sale of those assets," the spokesman said.
New Zealand police and Interpol are making inquiries with Hong Kong police, and officials in Beijing, to track down the couple and the missing cash.
Neither the bank nor police have confirmed the identities of the fugitives.
The couple are reportedly travelling with Ms Young's seven-year-old daughter, Lena, and her sister, Aroha. A third person, Huan Di Zhang, a director of Heights Services, which owned the service station, is also missing.
Ms Young's mother, Blenheim hair salon owner Suzanne Hurring, who was interviewed by police yesterday, told 3News the escapade was completely out of character for her daughter. "She's beautiful and she's honest ... she's never pinched a thing in her life."
She said her daughter had phoned her once since flitting the country, "but I hung up on her because I knew what she had done".
She described her daughter's partner as "an OK guy" and hard-working. "But if you want to know, I'd really like to wring his blimmin' neck."
She hoped her daughter would come back soon. "I've got to keep my spirits up and get my girls home. Never mind Leo, he can stay there."
TVNZ broadcast footage of Mr Gao's white ute abandoned at Auckland International Airport.
Banking experts say recovering the money will depend on the co-operation of authorities in the country where it is found. It is illegal for the couple to keep it.
Ad Feedback Neighbouring business owners said Mr Gao had been trying to sell the service station for almost a year. A house nearby, owned by Mr Gao and Mr Zhang, has been for sale since October.
Andrew Campbell, of financial workers' union Finsec, said it would be wrong to single out one employee for the mistake.
Manual checks were made at the end of every day to balance the "ups and downs", he said.
"What is unusual is the large amount involved and why it didn't get picked up."
WORLD IS WATCHING
The story of the "accidental millionaires" is making headlines around the world:
It was one of the most popular stories on websites including the BBC, CNN and Voice of America, and was picked up by international wire agencies, including AFP, Reuters and the official Chinese news site Xinhua.
Britain's The Times noted the runaways appeared to have "taken Westpac's motto `Make the most of life' to heart" and likened them to 1930s American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde.
The Sydney Morning Herald said the couple "were laughing all the way from the bank".
Writing in the British newspaper The Guardian, philosopher Julian Baggini said claiming the bank should pay for its mistake was like stealing a car and blaming the owner for leaving the keys in it.
Take the Money and Run: Manhunt for Couple Who Bolted After $6.1 Million Bank Error
Friday, May 22, 2009
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Friends say Leo Gao always dreamed of owning a fish-and-chips shop, and someday living the good life.
But someday came sooner than expected, courtesy of a New Zealand bank error that gave him a $6.1 million line of credit, instead of the $61,000 limit for which he'd applied.
Now, the Korean national and his girlfriend, Cara Young, a New Zealander -- who together ran a gas station in rural Rotorua -- are the focus of an international manhunt after Gao withdrew an estimated $4 million and, together with Young, hit the road.
The young couple, who are in their mid-twenties, told friends they were going on holiday. Their car was found abandoned at Auckland airport and the police believe they have fled to China. Interpol and New Zealand police are focusing their search on Beijing and Hong Kong.
Young's four-year-old daughter, Lena, and Gao's mother and siblings who lived with him in a house near the service station, BP Barnetts, also have disappeared, according to the couple's friends.
Gao always "dreamt of getting rich," a neighbor, Chevi Lambert, told The Times of London.
"He talked to me about his dreams and ventures," Lambert said. "His one big dream was to make money. He bought a fish and chip shop next door to the garage and wanted to make it into a Chinese fish and chip shop. But he didn't do anything about it," Lambert told The Times of London.
"It just sat there empty and after about six months he sold it for less than he bought it for.
"That was around the time when BP started going downhill. He lost motivation; the pressure of working those those long hours left him really stressed," she told The Times of London.
"At the same time he and Cara were having a lot of problems," she added. "They split up about a month ago but they were trying to work things out."
Young's mother, Suzanne Hurring, told local TV news that she could not believe her daughter had stolen the money, describing her as "beautiful and honest."
Related Stories
* New Zealand Couple Flees After Bank Accidentally Drops $6 Million Into Their Account
"This was the crazy thing, she has never pinched a thing in her life. She is so honest," she said.
She would like to "wring (Mr Gao's) blimmin' neck," she added.
California Father Accused of Biting Son's Eye, Eating It
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
A California man has been jailed on torture and cruelty charges after he allegedly bit his 4-year-old son's eye, blinding the child.
Angelo Mendoza, 34, is accused of biting the boy's eyeball out of his face and eating it, according to WCTV.
The child's eyes were swollen shut — one of them mutilated beyond repair, police said — and he had several bite wounds on his hands, the station reported.
Mendoza appeared to be on PCP at the time of the attack, according to the police report.
He's been charged with aggravated mayhem, torture and cruelty to a child and is being held on $1 million bail. The boy has been placed with child protective services.
German Man's Skeleton Found in Tree Nearly 30 Years After His Suicide
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
A skeleton of a German man who shot and killed himself in a tree has been found by a hiker – nearly 30 years later.
Police said the 69-year-old retiree who had been missing since 1980 tied himself to the tree before firing the gun, Reuters reported.
His remains were discovered after an 18-year-old hiker found a bone in the forest last week and brought it to police, who then searched the area, Reuters reported.
"We found the skeleton up in the tree with the pistol hanging on a rope next to it," police spokesman Leonard Mayer was quoted as saying.
The body was identified through DNA testing and an artificial hip, Reuters reported.
Report: 9 People Visited ER 2,678 Times in 6 Years
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
AP
AUSTIN, Texas —
Just nine people accounted for nearly 2,700 of the emergency room visits in the Austin area during the past six years at a cost of $3 million to taxpayers and others, according to a report.
The patients went to hospital emergency rooms 2,678 times from 2003 through 2008, said the report from the nonprofit Integrated Care Collaboration, a group of health care providers who care for low-income and uninsured patients.
"What we're really trying to do is find out who's using our emergency rooms ... and find solutions," said Ann Kitchen, executive director of the group, which presented the report last week to the Travis County Healthcare District board.
The average emergency room visit costs $1,000. Hospitals and taxpayers paid the bill through government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, Kitchen said.
Eight of the nine patients have drug abuse problems, seven were diagnosed with mental health issues and three were homeless. Five are women whose average age is 40, and four are men whose average age is 50, the report said, the Austin American-Statesman reported Wednesday.
"It's a pretty significant issue," said Dr. Christopher Ziebell, chief of the emergency department at University Medical Center at Brackenridge, which has the busiest ERs in the area.
Solutions include referring some frequent users to mental health programs or primary care doctors for future care, Ziebell said.
"They have a variety of complaints," he said. With mental illness, "a lot of anxiety manifests as chest pain."
Socialism and much worse to follow imo
Fed to pump another $1 trillion into U.S. economy -
By Edmund L. Andrews
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
WASHINGTON: Saying that the recession continues to deepen, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced Wednesday that it would pump an extra $1 trillion into the economy by buying mortgage-backed securities and long-term Treasury issues.
"Job losses, declining equity and housing wealth, and tight credit conditions have weighed on consumer sentiment and spending," the Fed said, adding that it would "employ all available tools to promote economic recovery and to preserve price stability."
As expected, the Fed kept its benchmark interest rate virtually at zero. But in a surprise, it drastically increased the amount of money it will create out of thin air to thaw out the still-frozen credit markets that have cramped lending to consumers and businesses alike.
The Fed said it would purchase an additional $750 billion worth of government-guaranteed mortgage-backed securities, on top of the $500 billion that it is currently in the process of buying. In addition, the Fed said it would buy up to $300 billion worth of longer-term Treasury securities over the next six months. That would tend to push down longer-term interest rates on loans of all types.
All of these measures would come in addition to what has already been an unprecedented expansion of lending by the Fed. Since last September, the central bank has roughly doubled the size of its balance sheet to nearly $2 trillion from $900 billion even before the action Wednesday mainly because of its efforts to rescue credit markets.
Despite a trickle of encouraging economic data in the past few weeks, Fed officials have shown no readiness yet to cut back on their unprecedented measures to pump money into the economy.
Fed policy makers sharply reduced their economic forecasts in December, predicting that the economy would continue to experience steep contractions for the first half of 2009, that unemployment could approach 9 percent by the end of the year and that there was at least a small risk of an across-the-board drop in consumer prices akin to what Japan experienced for nearly a decade.
The Fed said Wednesday that the "near-term economic outlook is weak" but that it anticipated "that policy actions to stabilize financial markets and institutions, together with fiscal and monetary stimulus, will contribute to a gradual resumption of sustainable economic growth."
Hours before the Fed announced its decision on Wednesday, the U.S. Labor Department reported that consumer prices climbed 0.4 percent in January, the second consecutive monthly increase. The news provided some relief from deflation worries, but most analysts still expect prices to remain nearly flat for the foreseeable future. In their most recent forecast, Fed policy makers predicted that consumer prices would rise 0.3 percent to 1 percent this year well below the central bank's unofficial inflation target of nearly 2 percent.
The Federal Reserve reduced its benchmark interest rate to virtually zero in December, declaring that it would keep the rate at that level for "some time" and focusing its additional efforts to revive the economy on a wide range of new lending programs.
As expected, the Fed repeated on Wednesday that it would keep its benchmark rate, the federal funds rate, at zero for "some time." While the central bank had said for some time that it was considering the possibility of buying longer-term Treasury bonds, Fed officials had played down that idea in the past month as they focused their attention instead on more targeted intervention in the credit markets.
In their statement on Wednesday, however, the Fed policy makers offered little explanation for the decision to go ahead with the Treasury purchases after all, saying only that the move was intended to "improve conditions in private credit markets."
Starting last September, the new lending programs including money for bailouts of individual companies like Citigroup, American International Group and Bank of America have caused the Fed to print new money at the fastest pace in history. But much of that money has remained dormant, because the economic downturn has made banks reluctant to lend and businesses and consumers either reluctant or unable to borrow.
The Fed and the Treasury are in the process this week of starting a joint venture called the Consumer and Business Lending Initiative in their latest effort to revive the credit markets. The program will start out by offering $200 billion worth of financing for consumer loans, small business loans and some corporate purposes like equipment leasing.
Fed officials have said they hoped to expand the program next month, possibly to include the huge market for commercial mortgages, and both the Fed and Treasury hoped the program would eventually provide up to $1 trillion in total financing.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=36312189
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.aspx?board_id=439
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=36425856
http://www.conspiracypenpal.com/
So far, not very off-base, what with yesterday's 1 Trillion dollar dump by the fed...
I guess Canada and Europe have been moving in that direction - I tend to think of them as a bellwether for a lot of the nutty ideas out there - if it's happening there, it can happen here. First in places like Berkeley, CA, then...mushrooms!
here's a fairly recent article on it:
http://www.chartingstocks.net/2009/03/bailout-for-the-mainstream-media-may-be-next/
The carts they posted there say a lot, not to mention the overall bias in the media in general. The media is the best friend the current regime has right now, IMO
Personally, I hope the Times goes down in flames
Yo News board! Has anyone heard news on the suposed media bailout? Just checking in, 1st time. Ran through some of the posts, and decided to mark the board!
DUI Defendant Claims He Is His Own Country
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
EASTON, Pa. — A man accused of driving drunk said Pennsylvania courts have no jurisdiction over him because he's his own country. After seeing the paperwork that 44-year-old Scott Allan Witmer filed with the court claiming sovereignty, a Northampton County judge said Tuesday he cannot be released from jail until he gets a mental exam.
Witmer, who represented himself, said he believes police lack jurisdiction to pull him over. As he said in court: "I live inside myself, not in Pennsylvania." He said there is no victim in the crime and asked to go to trial.
Defense attorney James Connell, Witmer's standby counsel, said a challenge to the traffic stop would need to be filed as a pretrial motion.
Couple: We Didn't Notice $175,000 Bank Error
Pennsylvania Pair Accused of Exploiting $175G Banking Error
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
BLOOMSBURG, Pennsylvania — Police say a northeastern Pennsylvania couple did not call the bank when a $1,772.50 deposit showed up in their account as $177,250.
Authorities say 50-year-old Randy Pratt and 36-year-old Melissa Marie Pratt of Bloomsburg took out all the money, quit their jobs and moved to Florida.
The two were arraigned Tuesday and jailed in lieu of $100,000 bail. District Judge Donna Coombe says a public defender and a conflicts lawyer are being assigned.
The pair, now legally separated, faces felony theft charges, counts of receiving stolen property and criminal conspiracy to commit theft, Pennsylvania's Press Enterprise reported Wednesday on its Web site.
Police say Melissa Pratt told them her husband often got large checks and she wasn't aware of any banking error.
However, the Press Enterprise reported that police said Randy Pratt was employed as a metal roofing installer and only earned about $3,800 as a roofer all last year.
Police say Melissa Pratt deposited the check at FNB Bank last summer. When the big balance showed up investigators say the two wrote checks to another account, bought a new vehicle and were buying a house in the Orlando area when the mistake was traced.
The newspaper reported that the couple managed to spend all but about $50,000 of the money.
Jews Attack Mexican Heritage in Los Angeles County -
The Jewish ACLU has led the attack against Christianity in the USA
and has been ... This is one reason why people around the world
are becoming increasingly ...
http://www.aztlan.net/cross_la_seal.htm
Jury Duty Scam
This has been verified by the FBI (their link is also included below). Please pass this on to everyone in your email address book. It is spreading fast so be prepared should you get this call. Most of us take those summonses for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on their civic duty, that a new and ominous kind of fraud has surfaced.
The caller claims to be a jury coordinator. If you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant. Give out any of this information and bingo; your identity was just stolen.
The fraud has been reported so far in 11 states, including Oklahoma , Illinois , and Colorado . This (swindle) is particularly insidious because they use intimidation over the phone to try to bully people into giving information by pretending they are with the court system. The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud.
FBI link: http://www.fbi.gov/page2/june06/jury_scams060206.htm
Among Berg's arguments is that if Obama was born in Kenya [
http://www.wethepeoplefoundation.org/obama/
Obamageddon and Other Disasters -
www.conspiracypenpal.com/columns/wolf.htm
Regarding OBAMA that he is NOT “NATURAL BORN” and therefore NOT constitutionally QUALIFIED to be PRESIDENT -
http://www.oilforimmigration.org/facts/
Obama Crimes - Urgent – Write Letters to Supreme Court Justices -
Case of Berg vs. Obama, U.S.S.C. Case No. 08-570, in the U.S. Supreme Court has been scheduled
for two [2] Conferences
[January 9th and 16th, 2009].
http://www.obamacrimes.com/
Let's stop this fraudulent - aka Barry Soetero? -
Contact Your Representatives Now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
www.dailypaul.com/node/76524
www.visi.com/juan/congress/
We have until the 20th of January fellow
lovers of freedom, the Constitution and
all we hold dear to Stop a liar
from taking office?
U.S. Military Preparing for Domestic Disturbances
Tuesday, December 23, 2008 1:14 PM
By: Jim Meyers
A new report from the U.S. Army War College discusses the use of American troops to quell civil unrest brought about by a worsening economic crisis.
The report from the War College’s Strategic Studies Institute warns that the U.S. military must prepare for a “violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States” that could be provoked by “unforeseen economic collapse” or “loss of functioning political and legal order.”
Entitled “Known Unknowns: Unconventional ‘Strategic Shocks’ in Defense Strategy Development,” the report was produced by Nathan Freier, a recently retired Army lieutenant colonel who is a professor at the college — the Army’s main training institute for prospective senior officers.
He writes: “To the extent events like this involve organized violence against local, state, and national authorities and exceed the capacity of the former two to restore public order and protect vulnerable populations, DoD [Department of Defense] would be required to fill the gap.”
Freier continues: “Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order … An American government and defense establishment lulled into complacency by a long-secure domestic order would be forced to rapidly divest some or most external security commitments in order to address rapidly expanding human insecurity at home.”
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned last week of riots and unrest in global markets if the ongoing financial crisis is not addressed and lower-income households are beset with credit constraints and rising unemployment, the Phoenix Business Journal reported.
Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma and Rep. Brad Sherman of California disclosed that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson discussed a worst-case scenario as he pushed the Wall Street bailout in September, and said that scenario might even require a declaration of martial law.
The Army College report states: “DoD might be forced by circumstances to put its broad resources at the disposal of civil authorities to contain and reverse violent threats to domestic tranquility. Under the most extreme circumstances, this might include use of military force against hostile groups inside the United States.
“Further, DoD would be, by necessity, an essential enabling hub for the continuity of political authority in a multi-state or nationwide civil conflict or disturbance.”
He concludes this section of the report by observing: “DoD is already challenged by stabilization abroad. Imagine the challenges associated with doing so on a massive scale at home."
As Newsmax reported earlier, the Defense Department has made plans to deploy 20,000 troops nationwide by 2011 to help state and local officials respond to emergencies.
The 130-year-old Posse Comitatus Act restricts the military’s role in domestic law enforcement. But a 1994 Defense Department Directive allows military commanders to take emergency actions in domestic situations to save lives, prevent suffering or mitigate great property damage, according to the Business Journal.
And Gen. Tommy Franks, who led the U.S. military operations to liberate Iraq, said in a 2003 interview that if the U.S. is attacked with a weapon of mass destruction, the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government.
© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/military_domestic_use/2008/12/23/164765.html?s=al&promo_code=%20763B-1
say that again?! -
"The New Deal, for instance, cost an estimated $32 billion in its day, which would be about $500 billion in today’s dollars. The Marshall Plan cost about $12.7 billion, which is the equivalent of a paltry $115.3 billion. The Louisiana Purchase? The French got $15 million, which would be worth about $217 billion today.
If you take those three items, add in the adjusted costs of the Race to the Moon, the savings and loan crisis, the Korean War, the Iraq war, the Vietnam War and assistance for NASA, you still get to just $3.92 trillion — not even half of the taxpayers’ exposure today, according to Bianco.
We should be swimming in money like Scrooge McDuck! Where is it all? The "bailout" money alone would have given $30,000 to every man, woman and child in the USA. Nope, instead, everything is worrying about going under.
WE'RE NOT EVEN TALKING ABOUT INTEREST HERE!
oh, and check this thing out:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
the national debt increases at a rate of three and a half billion dollars PER DAY.
...or how about the rest of the $8.7 TRILLION?!
Bailout payout tops $8 trillion
Jeanne Cummings Jeanne Cummings Tue Dec 16, 4:41 am ET
As the holiday season commences, it’s worth taking stock of the last gift that President George W. Bush and the 110th Congress have left for U.S. taxpayers.
It’s a package of about $8.7 trillion dollars’ worth of potential taxpayer commitments for loans, guarantees and other bailout goodies for businesses and distressed homeowners.
Amid the tissue paper:
• More than $1.5 trillion in Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. loan guarantees, including a $139 billion assist to the lending arm of General Electric Corp.
• $1.8 trillion in cash, tax breaks and loan guarantees doled out from the Treasury Department to taxpayers, financial institutions and credit companies.
• $300 billion for homeowners from the Federal Housing Authority.
• $25 billion in assistance for auto companies from a program overseen by the Energy Department, which is separate from the bailout proposal that tanked last week in the Senate.
• And $5 trillion worth of new money, loan guarantees and loosened lending requirements from the Federal Reserve Bank.
According to Bianco Research President James Bianco, who crunched these numbers, that amounts to more government aid and assistance than nine other historic bailouts and big government outlays combined.
The New Deal, for instance, cost an estimated $32 billion in its day, which would be about $500 billion in today’s dollars. The Marshall Plan cost about $12.7 billion, which is the equivalent of a paltry $115.3 billion. The Louisiana Purchase? The French got $15 million, which would be worth about $217 billion today.
If you take those three items, add in the adjusted costs of the Race to the Moon, the savings and loan crisis, the Korean War, the Iraq war, the Vietnam War and assistance for NASA, you still get to just $3.92 trillion — not even half of the taxpayers’ exposure today, according to Bianco.
If that weren’t enough to make you want to upgrade your holiday gift list, it’s useful to remember that Congress isn’t done and President-elect Barack Obama’s team hasn’t even started.
They are promising a newer and bigger stimulus package early next year — one that could make last spring’s $168 billion government giveaway to taxpayers (remember that fixer?) look like pocket change.
Asked just how much the taxpayers are on the hook for, Bianco said: “I just say you should use the number infinity, because nobody understands these numbers, and I would include the Treasury secretary and chairman of the Fed in that group.”
There is a bright side, sort of. Only about $2.9 trillion of the government money, loans and guarantees have actually been spent or committed.
And some of the deals are structured with the idea that taxpayers could one day make money off them by selling pieces of companies or the government’s new stake in them.
But that can’t be done until the economy rebounds, something that most economists aren’t yet willing to predict — probably because it would be even more depressing.
Now, all this is not to say that these measures weren’t necessary to save consumers from an even worse fate. That’s a big unanswered question that now will be left to speculators.
But the vast majority of the smart economic crowd, from both sides of the aisle, say the job losses and economic calamity that would have ensued without government intervention today would make the Great Depression look like an economic hiccup.
“If we don’t fix this, it doesn’t matter if we can’t pay for it,” said Heather Boushey, a senior economist at the Center for American Progress. “The problem will only get worse and become harder and even more expensive to fix.”
Meanwhile, she said, unemployment rates could soar abruptly, as they did during the Depression. “Every person who loses a job could also lose a house and health insurance and the ability to pay for college,” she added. “We could lose a generation.”
Given that, it was something of a wonder when Senate Republicans quashed a $14 billion rescue plan last week for domestic automakers.
Republicans had taken a beating on Election Day, in part because of resentment within their own base at the bailout bonanza in Washington.
But the automakers’ request seems a pittance given all the taxpayer cash already flooding the private market.
Part of the answer might have come from an Obama-style Internet campaign launched by FreedomWorks, a grass-roots organization led by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas).
FreedomWorks purchased Google search ads that popped up any time someone clicked for information about the auto bailout. The ad urged people to oppose the measure.
Thomas Keeley, the organization’s online advertising specialist, said the ad helped them generate nearly 100,000 messages to Congress. “We did very well, especially given the limited time we had on this,” he said.
The auto industry wasn’t idle. General Motors and Ford also took out Google search ads urging support for the package — a message that would have been tough to deliver in a big television ad campaign.
The cyberspace campaigns are likely a harbinger of how future bailout battles will be waged once Obama takes office with an e-mail list of more than 10 million supporters.
Already, Peter Greenberger, who’s heading up Google’s new issues advocacy sales team, says he’s warning interest groups that may take a stand on either side of the Democrats’ expected trillion-dollar stimulus package not “to organize a 20th-century advocacy campaign against a 21st-century administration.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/16620/print
Where'd the bailout money go? Shhhh, it's a secret
Dec 22, 9:52 AM (ET)
By MATT APUZZO
WASHINGTON (AP) - It's something any bank would demand to know before handing out a loan: Where's the money going?
But after receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation's largest banks say they can't track exactly how they're spending the money or they simply refuse to discuss it.
"We've lent some of it. We've not lent some of it. We've not given any accounting of, 'Here's how we're doing it,'" said Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money. "We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to."
The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what's the plan for the rest?
None of the banks provided specific answers.
"We're not providing dollar-in, dollar-out tracking," said Barry Koling, a spokesman for Atlanta, Ga.-based SunTrust Banks Inc., which got $3.5 billion in taxpayer dollars.
Some banks said they simply didn't know where the money was going.
"We manage our capital in its aggregate," said Regions Financial Corp. (RF) spokesman Tim Deighton, who said the Birmingham, Ala.-based company is not tracking how it is spending the $3.5 billion it received as part of the financial bailout.
The answers highlight the secrecy surrounding the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which earmarked $700 billion - about the size of the Netherlands' economy - to help rescue the financial industry. The Treasury Department has been using the money to buy stock in U.S. banks, hoping that the sudden inflow of cash will get banks to start lending money.
There has been no accounting of how banks spend that money. Lawmakers summoned bank executives to Capitol Hill last month and implored them to lend the money - not to hoard it or spend it on corporate bonuses, junkets or to buy other banks. But there is no process in place to make sure that's happening and there are no consequences for banks who don't comply.
"It is entirely appropriate for the American people to know how their taxpayer dollars are being spent in private industry," said Elizabeth Warren, the top congressional watchdog overseeing the financial bailout.
But, at least for now, there's no way for taxpayers to find that out.
Pressured by the Bush administration to approve the money quickly, Congress attached nearly no strings on the $700 billion bailout in October. And the Treasury Department, which doles out the money, never asked banks how it would be spent.
"Those are legitimate questions that should have been asked on Day One," said Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., a House Financial Services Committee member who opposed the bailout as it was rushed through Congress. "Where is the money going to go to? How is it going to be spent? When are we going to get a record on it?"
Nearly every bank AP questioned - including Citibank and Bank of America, two of the largest recipients of bailout money - responded with generic public relations statements explaining that the money was being used to strengthen balance sheets and continue making loans to ease the credit crisis.
A few banks described company-specific programs, such as JPMorgan Chase's plan to lend $5 billion to nonprofit and health care companies next year. Richard Becker, senior vice president of Wisconsin-based Marshall & Ilsley Corp. (MI) (MI), said the $1.75 billion in bailout money allowed the bank to temporarily stop foreclosing on homes.
But no bank provided even the most basic accounting for the federal money.
"We're choosing not to disclose that," said Kevin Heine, spokesman for Bank of New York Mellon, which received about $3 billion.
Others said the money couldn't be tracked. Bob Denham, a spokesman for North Carolina-based BB&T Corp., said the bailout money "doesn't have its own bucket." But he said taxpayer money wasn't used in the bank's recent purchase of a Florida insurance company. Asked how he could be sure, since the money wasn't being tracked, Denham said the bank would have made that deal regardless.
Others, such as Morgan Stanley (MS) spokeswoman Carissa Ramirez, offered to discuss the matter with reporters on condition of anonymity. When AP refused, Ramirez sent an e-mail saying: "We are going to decline to comment on your story."
Most banks wouldn't say why they were keeping the details secret.
"We're not sharing any other details. We're just not at this time," said Wendy Walker, a spokeswoman for Dallas-based Comerica Inc., which received $2.25 billion from the government.
Heine, the New York Mellon Corp. spokesman who said he wouldn't share spending specifics, added: "I just would prefer if you wouldn't say that we're not going to discuss those details."
The banks which came closest to answering the questions were those, such as U.S. Bancorp and Huntington Bancshares Inc., that only recently received the money and have yet to spend it. But neither provided anything more than a generic summary of how the money would be spent.
Lawmakers say they want to tighten restrictions on the remaining, yet-to-be-released $350 billion block of bailout money before more cash is handed out. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the department is trying to step up its monitoring of bank spending.
"What we've been doing here is moving, I think, with lightning speed to put necessary programs in place, to develop them, implement them, and then we need to monitor them while we're doing this," Paulson said at a recent forum in New York. "So we're building this organization as we're going."
Warren, the congressional watchdog appointed by Democrats, said her oversight panel will try to force the banks to say where they've spent the money.
"It would take a lot of nerve not to give answers," she said.
But Warren said she's surprised she even has to ask.
"If the appropriate restrictions were put on the money to begin with, if the appropriate transparency was in place, then we wouldn't be in a position where you're trying to call every recipient and get the basic information that should already be in public documents," she said.
Garrett, the New Jersey congressman, said the nation might never get a clear answer on where hundreds of billions of dollars went.
"A year or two ago, when we talked about spending $100 million for a bridge to nowhere, that was considered a scandal," he said.
---
Associated Press writers Stevenson Jacobs in New York and Christopher S. Rugaber and Daniel Wagner in Washington contributed to this report.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081222/D957QL7O0.html
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